Mr Lester J Hendershot's magnetic generator.

[GSM]

Hello GSM,

clarence ,

loved your explicit video!

Question sir: to remove my lack of knowledge on the subject, is there a point determined by the depth of the neutral zone where the magnet effect on the keeper/armature just keeps alternating the field reversal or not? Im asking because I was watching the back and forth movement of the compass needle.
I may not even have asked the question in an appropriate manner, so please bear with my lack of knowledge Sir.

your considerations and efforts in answering will definitely be greatly appreciated!

mike, onward!

Hi Clarence,

It is very easy to make the compass needle spin continuously via fractional movement of the magnet backwards and forwards across the neutral zone - its all down to timing and co-ordination.

Cheers ......... Graham.

[Dave45]

Hi Clarence,

It is very easy to make the compass needle spin continuously via fractional movement of the magnet backwards and forwards across the neutral zone - its all down to timing and co-ordination.

Cheers ......... Graham.

Do you think the pulsing in the buzzer coils are creating this spin on both ends of the iron keeper?

[GSM]

And if we add the keeper

Hi Dave.

When a keeper is added the field becomes like that within a toroid - contained.

Ed Leedskalnin used the term magnetic current, and thus the magnetic energy is continuously mutual within the horseshoe/ keeper circuit, taking lines like those of speedway riders on a similar shaped circuit; ie. hugging corner apexes, broadening out through wider cross sections and intense through narrow ones like a keeper.
Thus there is no overall field outer looping the centre of the keeper and the top of your horseshoe in the drawing.

I'm not sure what all your drawings are meant to be indicating, especially the last set. Magnets cannot generate AC unles they or a conductor move, and in the Hendershot generator it is the field which is made to alternate within the keeper-buzzer circuit, thereby inducing a magnet biased Barhausen like avalanche of magnetic pulse through the keeper-buzzers cores.

The Barkhausen Effect experiment by Jean-Louis Naudin

Hysteresis Critical Point

Cheers ............ Graham.

[clarence]

Hi Clarence,

It is very easy to make the compass needle spin continuously via fractional movement of the magnet backwards and forwards across the neutral zone - its all down to timing and co-ordination.

Cheers ......... Graham.

Hello GSM,

clarence,

I absorbed completely your return answer to my question Sir and I thank you for your expeditious efforts.

awhile back I had heard that when a coil is wrapped around a soft iron rod ( the no of turns being non specific) and subsequently when the coil is energized with circuit voltage that the soft iron rod would actually grow in length however miniscule that might be. and that when the voltage was stopped that the rod would return to its normal length. drawing from your vast personal data base, would that be correct or myth Sir. again it is immensely pleasureable to have your source of experience to draw from as I am sure all other members are aware.

thanks again Sir for your graciousness and efforts!
mike, onward!

[Dave45]

Hi Dave.

When a keeper is added the field becomes like that within a toroid - contained.

Ed Leedskalnin used the term magnetic current, and thus the magnetic energy is continuously mutual within the horseshoe/ keeper circuit, taking lines like those of speedway riders on a similar shaped circuit; ie. hugging corner apexes, broadening out through wider cross sections and intense through narrow ones like a keeper.
Thus there is no overall field outer looping the centre of the keeper and the top of your horseshoe in the drawing.

I'm not sure what all your drawings are meant to be indicating, especially the last set. Magnets cannot generate AC unles they or a conductor move, and in the Hendershot generator it is the field which is made to alternate within the keeper-buzzer circuit, thereby inducing a magnet biased Barhausen like avalanche of magnetic pulse through the keeper-buzzers cores.

The Barkhausen Effect experiment by Jean-Louis Naudin

Hysteresis Critical Point

Cheers ............ Graham.

Your exactly right the magnet field is contained inside the toroid the field Im showing is the A vortex field not the magnetic field.
The magnetic field is compressed space - static
The A vortex field is electric - kenetic

3-D Magnetostatic Field Simulation select solenoid then field lines

[Dave45]

End view of the solenoid

[Dave45]

Im sorry I called it the A vortex field its called the A vector field.
This is the field that tranfers energy between two coils
This is the field seen spinning the plasma is this vid
JK Plasma Magnetics Experiment 1 - YouTube

[GSM]

when the coil is energized with circuit voltage that the soft iron rod would actually grow in length however miniscule that might be. and that when the voltage was stopped that the rod would return to its normal length.

Hi Clarence.

It is the other way round. Check out "magnetostriction".
When charges flow in the same direction through closely positioned parallel conductors, the conductors are attracted together.
It is just the same with magnetic field aligned electron spin orbits; the unbonded electron based charge flow around neighbouring atomic centres causes neighbouring electrons to become physically attracted, which reduces the spacing between the soft iron atoms. Without magneticly induced electron spin orbit alignment, the atomic spacing returns to its random normality.

End view of the solenoid

Not correct, and I repeat - drawing field lines around coils is both misleading and meaningless, because there is not ANY field coupling until some matter interacts with the charge flow induced electron alignments within the wire !

Dave, in order to become an EM Imagineer we must think about the basis of matter itself, including electrons, their alignments, induced forces related to their spin orbits, and precessions induced by alternating excitations.

Im sorry I called it the A vortex field its called the A vector field.
This is the field that tranfers energy between two coils
This is the field seen spinning the plasma is this vid
JK Plasma Magnetics Experiment 1 - YouTube

Thats a good video to illustrate the forces acting upon a conductor carrying a charge in the presence of a permanent magnetic field (majority of unbonded electrons having like axial spin alignments permanently aligned within the magnetic material), whether the charge motion be electronic through a conductor, or via ions and electrons through a plasma.

Cheers ......... Graham.

[clarence]

soft iron rod length vs coil voltage and voltage removal

HELLO GSM,

clarence,

I do appreciate your in depth explanation. I will also pour over magnetostriction as you advised. thanks again!!

mike,onward!

[Dave45]

[hywystr]

Hendershot generator

Hello. I have been following with great interest your discussion on the Hendershot generator. I ended up purchasing a plan online to build one. after meticulously constructing the two basket weave coils obtaining the required capacitors, transformers, and building the magnet coils I tried it out and it did not work. I believe the instructions were meant to get you so far but leave out many necesary details. One important one seems to be the metal sleeve in the center of the basket weave coils. From your discussion it appears this is a necesary part. The video of the plans I bought is on You-Tube. I have downloaded a disc of it from the materials I paid for. It appears that the one on You-Tube was made by a Russian and when the project was finished they fired it up. It appeared to be supplying 220 voltage and powering 28 incandecent light bulbs and also an LCD tv. I am intensely interested in seeing this through. Bob

Hi Boguslaw,

I don't think that the Hendershot generator runs at the sort of frequencies associated with spark gap technologies, and it is possible the longitudinal resonance induced within the core could be 30 to 60kHz, so although I suggested a modulated RF generator, it would need to be one running at low RF frequencies, or even be an audio generator having extended HF range. Besides, the TV frame output transformers would still be useful at this sort of frequency, whereas the cores used in mains transformers would be much more lossy.

Also whilst lamps would still run at that frequency your question about other equipment is most valid, because 'no' - a 50-60Hz modulated carrier is quite unlike 50-60Hz mains, and coiled wire heaters might have a self inductance which would effectively reduce their dissipation.

The Thomas Edison observations related to vibration are new to me and likely require further investigation, especially if this related to the vibration of 'magnetic domains'.

Hi Chris.

You know what, I have mused so much about this I find it difficult to find any starting point.

I have not heard of any works by Joseph Cater either, so obviously my studies must continue.

Re the magnet keeper; obviously to maintain maximum field when not in use, for the gap could not have been completely closed during operation.

Also yes, I believe the mass resonance would have been at a carrier frequency, with the those 40uF capacitors able to introduce phase change at such frequency.
Another reason why I think a travelling wave is longitudinally induced within the core is due to the twice phase shifted low impedance outputs of T1/2 being fed to L3 windings with respect to L2 and the single phase shifted drive to L4.

Anyone have an original Hendershot generator I can get my hands on, or even if I might directly question any owner of same to fill in some of the blanks ?

Is Mark Hendershot still alive and amenable to open source questions, for there is no way I would be willing to do this in a non-public way ?
If yes, does Mark communicate via the internet ?

Cheers ............. Graham.

[morpher44]

purchasing a plan??

Hello. I have been following with great interest your discussion on the Hendershot generator. I ended up purchasing a plan online to build one. after meticulously constructing the two basket weave coils obtaining the required capacitors, transformers, and building the magnet coils I tried it out and it did not work. I believe the instructions were meant to get you so far but leave out many necesary details. One important one seems to be the metal sleeve in the center of the basket weave coils. From your discussion it appears this is a necesary part. The video of the plans I bought is on You-Tube. I have downloaded a disc of it from the materials I paid for. It appears that the one on You-Tube was made by a Russian and when the project was finished they fired it up. It appeared to be supplying 220 voltage and powering 28 incandecent light bulbs and also an LCD tv. I am intensely interested in seeing this through. Bob

So everything you paid for was FREE on the web.
The sale of this bogus "plan" is a rip-off.
I don't want to discourage you from this hobby, however. It is fascinating.
The instructions explained nothing and people on this forum, and other places, are trying to work out what might be going on with the Hendershot devices. He had several iterations ranging from a toy that powered his son's toy plane (seen in a newspaper article Feb. 27, 1928.

Interestingly, the chronology here is:
2/24/1928 - first articles start appearing about Hendershot's fuelless generator
2/27/1928 - Many newspapers have the article now...
2/28/1928 - ONE-DAY-LATER, it is already being debunked and Hendershot
is accused of fraud, etc.
3/9/1928 - newspaper articles appear that Hendershot is in hospital after
receiving serious SHOCK. He is paralyzed, can't speak,
especially can't speak to reporters.
more debunking... what Hendershot is doing
has already been attempted by folks in the late 1800s with
prior art, patents, etc. They mention "electrometer", and
Tesla is asked about it and Tesla is skeptical. Hubbard is also
mentioned. Debunking is real "THICK" at this point.
3/10/1928 - more articles about him in hospital
3/26/1928 - more "debunking" articles
.... after this date ... silence about Hendershot....

I find it amazing that in such a short time Hendershot goes from being a "genius" with amazing invention to a fraud with a carefully constructed debunking campaign, showing off devices that don't work, and hiding Hendershot from the press, etc.

So Bob, I'm starting to come to the conclusion that what we really need to figure out is not how to build this device "as Hendershot did", which is interesting, but "painful" and "primitive". What we are really after here are principals that can be applied to the construction of a more modern "self-powered" generator.

With step-wise refinement, we might be able to achieve that goal, but we shouldn't LIMIT ourselves to old-school approaches. For example, Hendershot was not using DIODES. Pretty amazing ... but we should restrict ourselves to doing it the same way as him. Hendershot struggled with reliability and had to "cheat" with little batteries. I find that not be such a "cheat" because you probably do need to provide power at first to get it to move into higher-levels of magnetic fields. Hendershot had a crazy circuit that doesn't really make sense in terms of conventional circuit design. He wasn't "educated" in circuit analysis, but I can tell that he WAS educated in induction-compass, Earth's field, formulas for solenoids and number of turns, etc. and how to best wind a coil to reduce self-capacitance (basketweave and honeycomb, etc.). These are state-of-the-art RADIO engineering practices of his day.
Find "Wireless Magazine" from 1926, 1927, 1928, etc. and honeycomb coil TABLES and long discussions about them can be found. Obviously Hendershot was reading this stuff, or exposed to engineers who know about coils.

So here are some of my thoughts about a modern approach:

* need low-power to start the effect. The best circuit I've found for this
is the "TATE" ambient power circuit which uses germanium diodes,
and capacitors and an antenna and ground. Very easy... works great.
* need an oscillating "chopper" circuit. It needs to be square-waves and
not sign-waves to produce "fast" pole-reversals in the solenoid with
narrow pulse-width, and very low-power duty cycle.
The 555 timer can do this with pretty low power. To get the solenoid
to produce a LARGE magnetic effect towards the keeper and magnet,
you will need to match the solenoid coil with the strength of the magnet.
So of the magnet is say 20 milliTeslas and you want 20 milliTeslas out
of your solenoid with a certain current, you can "derive" the number of
turns you need -- given other solenoid geometry.
The "TATE" circuit and your antenna might not provide enough juice
for the solenoid, 555, etc. ... so instead use battery power @ first
to prototype this.
* need "tuned" circuit for pick up of the oscillations created by the magnet.
Unlike "radio" tuned circuits, we are tuning for oscillations much lower.
The oscillations can be 40 to 180Hz if we are taking "buzzer" frequencies
or can be 1.3khz to 3khz if we are talking Earth's NMR frequencies ...
or can be much much higher such as 1.4Ghz if we are talking
full-wave reception into metal cylinders inside your coil. I think Hendershot
was using high-frequency reception to create magnetic field oscillations --
"beat frequencies" that could then be harnessed using lower-frequency
tuned circuits. Hence, various "stages" are tuned various ways
with consideration for "phase" and other things. These are non-trivial
circuit analysis problems, but not "impossible" to figure out. A good
circuit simulator might help. One thing lacking in circuit simulators, however,
is the accounting of the all the "mutual-induction" and the notion of
"positive-feedback" using energy "received" from the outside of
a closed circuit.
* need "low resistance" load "in-circuit". It becomes just part of the circuit
adding the the "R" in an "LRC" circuit. If you keep R small enough,
oscillations can continue. Be too greedy with "R", such as trying to run
some HEATER that you sit by when its cold ... oscillations stop, circuit
doesn't work. So lighting is possible because bulbs are low resistance.
Heating elements ... much more difficult ... much more juice.

Unlike "radio", a large magnet may be a sort of "magnetic field antenna".
In radio, to receive long-waves down in the 2khz range, you would need a very very very long antenna ... even if that antenna was Quarter-Wave.
Yet a MAGNET ... and a BAR ... and a COIL ... may be a different sort
of antenna that is long-wave and can couple with the Earth's field
since METAL responds to the Earth's field. I.e. you can provide a
quick magnetic pulse and make the electrons and protons in the metal
spin for a time ... As these spins start to settle down, feeling the drag
of the Earth's field, they start to adjust and spin with the Earth's magnetic
field. So all around us we have a magnetic field -- kinda weak though -- that will take what we have done SPIN-WISE ... and alter it into what it wants to do SPIN-WISE... We provide a little power ... the Earth undoes our power ... and puts things BACK to what it wants restoring balance.
Resonance matters because like pushing a child on a swing, we need
our pulses to be exactly right so that we can HARNESS the Earth's field
properly.

I think many of us have been working out ideas like this ... and the real challenge here is building a machine to do this that is self powered.
I feel, however, the design of this machine need not be Hendershot's original schematic (given we can't find that ... there are several alternate schematics and a disinfo campaign to contend with). Rather, we need to understand what is going on here and make NEW machines that harness energy this "new" way.

This challenge needs to be approached with great respect too because if it is indeed "easy" to do ... the geo-political ramifications of this are non-trivial ... and "change" comes with great risk and resistance.

You can either "share everything you do" freely with the world and not swet it ... or have really really good security and keep your notes under lock and key.

Welcome to the puzzle.
-morpher44

[MetalHolly]

My thought

The Hendshot Motor was designed for use in the air (after the plane had taken off on a conventional engine). Possible that the generator output increased with altitude i.e. position in the earths magnetic field. Also the flight was almost exactly East-West (New York to Paris) - The orientation of the generator itself within the Earths magnetic field (itself the power source) is a major factor in obtaining a reliable output. You should perform any testing at altitude if possible and facing East-West

[hywystr]

Hendershot generator

Hello Morpher
Obviously I was victimaized because the stuff I paid for left out much. It was by no means detailed and inquiries to the supplier were not answered. What I received was not exactly available for free on the net either. It is very convincing though as the video walks you through step by step and at the end the guy plugs in a light bank and it lights as well as an LCD tv. If there is any external power it is not detectable.

We all realize what Mr Hendershot did worked. As you mention the rub is how to duplicate it. I believe it is your videos on You-Tube I watched last night. I see you lined the coils with a metal of sorts. I also have been reading the considerable posts between Graham and Chris. They too mention a core in the coils. What did you use? Is it necesary?

I believe we all have the same goals of producing our own electricity. I got considerable written material downloaded from what I bought. It contained the newspaper articles as well as the history of what Lester did. It contained a schematic and with the help of a friend of mine I built the device as shown in the video. I have also last summer tried to make a device Nicola Tesla used to pull energy out of the air using a 4x4 ft aluminum collector on a 14 foot pole on top of my garage roof. It also has a 4 ft by 4 ft steel plate buried 4 feet deep for a ground. I built a simple device I found on the internet of capacitors and diodes and managed to draw 30 volts dc and a 10th of an amp. Back to the business at hand. I wound the basket weave coil with a base of copper enamaled wire 18 g. 12 times. The next level I used insulated 14 ga. wire 6 turns topped by another winding the same just a different color. As you have all mentioned there are tons of variables. I chose to use the two 500 mfd caps inside the basketweave coils and four 1000 mfd caps on the outside with two five to one transformers. Are you aware of anyone else that has gone this route? Anybody out there had any success?

I am very aware of the dangers of spreading this information of any success. I do not wish to have a couple of guys in black suites banging on my door wanting to see my device.

Bob

So everything you paid for was FREE on the web.
The sale of this bogus "plan" is a rip-off.
I don't want to discourage you from this hobby, however. It is fascinating.
The instructions explained nothing and people on this forum, and other places, are trying to work out what might be going on with the Hendershot devices. He had several iterations ranging from a toy that powered his son's toy plane (seen in a newspaper article Feb. 27, 1928.

Interestingly, the chronology here is:
2/24/1928 - first articles start appearing about Hendershot's fuelless generator
2/27/1928 - Many newspapers have the article now...
2/28/1928 - ONE-DAY-LATER, it is already being debunked and Hendershot
is accused of fraud, etc.
3/9/1928 - newspaper articles appear that Hendershot is in hospital after
receiving serious SHOCK. He is paralyzed, can't speak,
especially can't speak to reporters.
more debunking... what Hendershot is doing
has already been attempted by folks in the late 1800s with
prior art, patents, etc. They mention "electrometer", and
Tesla is asked about it and Tesla is skeptical. Hubbard is also
mentioned. Debunking is real "THICK" at this point.
3/10/1928 - more articles about him in hospital
3/26/1928 - more "debunking" articles
.... after this date ... silence about Hendershot....

I find it amazing that in such a short time Hendershot goes from being a "genius" with amazing invention to a fraud with a carefully constructed debunking campaign, showing off devices that don't work, and hiding Hendershot from the press, etc.

So Bob, I'm starting to come to the conclusion that what we really need to figure out is not how to build this device "as Hendershot did", which is interesting, but "painful" and "primitive". What we are really after here are principals that can be applied to the construction of a more modern "self-powered" generator.

With step-wise refinement, we might be able to achieve that goal, but we shouldn't LIMIT ourselves to old-school approaches. For example, Hendershot was not using DIODES. Pretty amazing ... but we should restrict ourselves to doing it the same way as him. Hendershot struggled with reliability and had to "cheat" with little batteries. I find that not be such a "cheat" because you probably do need to provide power at first to get it to move into higher-levels of magnetic fields. Hendershot had a crazy circuit that doesn't really make sense in terms of conventional circuit design. He wasn't "educated" in circuit analysis, but I can tell that he WAS educated in induction-compass, Earth's field, formulas for solenoids and number of turns, etc. and how to best wind a coil to reduce self-capacitance (basketweave and honeycomb, etc.). These are state-of-the-art RADIO engineering practices of his day.
Find "Wireless Magazine" from 1926, 1927, 1928, etc. and honeycomb coil TABLES and long discussions about them can be found. Obviously Hendershot was reading this stuff, or exposed to engineers who know about coils.

So here are some of my thoughts about a modern approach:

* need low-power to start the effect. The best circuit I've found for this
is the "TATE" ambient power circuit which uses germanium diodes,
and capacitors and an antenna and ground. Very easy... works great.
* need an oscillating "chopper" circuit. It needs to be square-waves and
not sign-waves to produce "fast" pole-reversals in the solenoid with
narrow pulse-width, and very low-power duty cycle.
The 555 timer can do this with pretty low power. To get the solenoid
to produce a LARGE magnetic effect towards the keeper and magnet,
you will need to match the solenoid coil with the strength of the magnet.
So of the magnet is say 20 milliTeslas and you want 20 milliTeslas out
of your solenoid with a certain current, you can "derive" the number of
turns you need -- given other solenoid geometry.
The "TATE" circuit and your antenna might not provide enough juice
for the solenoid, 555, etc. ... so instead use battery power @ first
to prototype this.
* need "tuned" circuit for pick up of the oscillations created by the magnet.
Unlike "radio" tuned circuits, we are tuning for oscillations much lower.
The oscillations can be 40 to 180Hz if we are taking "buzzer" frequencies
or can be 1.3khz to 3khz if we are talking Earth's NMR frequencies ...
or can be much much higher such as 1.4Ghz if we are talking
full-wave reception into metal cylinders inside your coil. I think Hendershot
was using high-frequency reception to create magnetic field oscillations --
"beat frequencies" that could then be harnessed using lower-frequency
tuned circuits. Hence, various "stages" are tuned various ways
with consideration for "phase" and other things. These are non-trivial
circuit analysis problems, but not "impossible" to figure out. A good
circuit simulator might help. One thing lacking in circuit simulators, however,
is the accounting of the all the "mutual-induction" and the notion of
"positive-feedback" using energy "received" from the outside of
a closed circuit.
* need "low resistance" load "in-circuit". It becomes just part of the circuit
adding the the "R" in an "LRC" circuit. If you keep R small enough,
oscillations can continue. Be too greedy with "R", such as trying to run
some HEATER that you sit by when its cold ... oscillations stop, circuit
doesn't work. So lighting is possible because bulbs are low resistance.
Heating elements ... much more difficult ... much more juice.

Unlike "radio", a large magnet may be a sort of "magnetic field antenna".
In radio, to receive long-waves down in the 2khz range, you would need a very very very long antenna ... even if that antenna was Quarter-Wave.
Yet a MAGNET ... and a BAR ... and a COIL ... may be a different sort
of antenna that is long-wave and can couple with the Earth's field
since METAL responds to the Earth's field. I.e. you can provide a
quick magnetic pulse and make the electrons and protons in the metal
spin for a time ... As these spins start to settle down, feeling the drag
of the Earth's field, they start to adjust and spin with the Earth's magnetic
field. So all around us we have a magnetic field -- kinda weak though -- that will take what we have done SPIN-WISE ... and alter it into what it wants to do SPIN-WISE... We provide a little power ... the Earth undoes our power ... and puts things BACK to what it wants restoring balance.
Resonance matters because like pushing a child on a swing, we need
our pulses to be exactly right so that we can HARNESS the Earth's field
properly.

I think many of us have been working out ideas like this ... and the real challenge here is building a machine to do this that is self powered.
I feel, however, the design of this machine need not be Hendershot's original schematic (given we can't find that ... there are several alternate schematics and a disinfo campaign to contend with). Rather, we need to understand what is going on here and make NEW machines that harness energy this "new" way.

This challenge needs to be approached with great respect too because if it is indeed "easy" to do ... the geo-political ramifications of this are non-trivial ... and "change" comes with great risk and resistance.

You can either "share everything you do" freely with the world and not swet it ... or have really really good security and keep your notes under lock and key.

Welcome to the puzzle.
-morpher44

[morpher44]

no need to fly...

The Hendshot Motor was designed for use in the air (after the plane had taken off on a conventional engine). Possible that the generator output increased with altitude i.e. position in the earths magnetic field. Also the flight was almost exactly East-West (New York to Paris) - The orientation of the generator itself within the Earths magnetic field (itself the power source) is a major factor in obtaining a reliable output. You should perform any testing at altitude if possible and facing East-West

Hi MetalHolly.
Actually, Hendershot was interested in aviation and induction compass, etc. The toy plane he made for his son could SIT stationary on a table-top and SPIN. No flying involved.
Re: cutting east-to-west
Hendershot found that you can CUT a magnetic field accross the east-west direction to create a SPIN. You can do this with any magnetic field -- including one provided by your OWN magnet. The Earth's field is pretty weak -- 40uTeslas to say 60uTeslas. A household refridgerator magnet is say 1mTesla (16x or more times stronger). He appears to have wound a coil around a magnet -- in a very magnetometer is sort of way. How he fit this into a motor that "self powers" is a bit of a mystery. The motor had a magnet (or 2) inside, though, you can be sure of that.